8th & 9th Grade On Track
Diplomas that Open Doors and Create Opportunities
Graduation is not the finish line
Despite many years of effort to improve high school graduation rates in California, there is a problem hiding in plain sight. Unfortunately not all high school diplomas carry equal value. Since 2005, when the current A-G requirements were required for college admission, there have been two different standards. Nearly half of California’s high school graduates (48%), are not eligible to attend California’s public 4-year colleges or universities. For students who identify as Latinx or African American that percentage climbs to 55% and 58% respectively. Now is the time to reimagine how our districts serve our middle and high school students so that college access is a reality for each and every one of our graduates. In short, there has never been a greater need to get our students on track!
The Opportunity
Join our network to improve your district systems, policies and practices in support of college access for 8th and 9th grade students by:
- Mitigating the disruption that occurs transitioning from middle to high school
- Introducing grading practices that create more equitable outcomes
- Creating processes to support A-G course placement and success for 9th graders
- Establishing systemic interventions to keep students on track
The Approach
With many years of experience as educators ourselves, we know that when it comes to driving change in schools, those working within districts are the ones best positioned to forge lasting solutions. Shoulder to shoulder with your team, we walk through an improvement approach that surfaces the challenges you face, identifies their causes, and tries out new approaches. And we do this while ensuring you have partners who encourage, inform, and challenge you along the way.
“One of the hardest jobs of a high school principal is staying focused on instruction, and the collaborative is a really good opportunity to get away from the site and work with district partners and partners outside that will push you on what we are supposed to be doing this whole time, which is helping students learn.”
– Matt Chambers, principal of John Burroughs High School
The District Commitment
The On Track Collaboration is a three year commitment (June 2024-June 2027). Our collaborative, continuous improvement approach builds capacity in your staff members over time while delivering students results.
9th Grade is Critical
If high school graduation is the finish line, then earning A-G credits is a relay race. Each year students must earn credits so they remain “on track” for A-G graduation. While all four years of high school are important, a growing body of research suggests the first year of high school is the critical transition point for students and, in fact, a strong predictor of student success in and beyond high school.
Proven Promising Practices
This is not a problem without a solution. A number of districts in the state are beginning to address the challenge with promising results. Participating districts will:
- Receive customized coaching each month by California Education Partners staff to exchange ideas, develop solutions and push one another’s thinking and communicate results
- Establish distinct and site based Monitoring Teams to identify and address challenge areas in your system
- Meet three times a year to collaborate with other districts
- Improve data analysis capacity within your staff
To learn more about our On Track work, read this analysis from researchers at Policy Analysis for California Education, who highlighted the efforts of two of the districts we work with, Azusa Unified in Los Angeles county and Dinuba Unified in Tulare county.
The Cost
This opportunity is being underwritten by the generous support of the Silver Giving Foundation to reduce costs to selected districts. For more information on the cost for your district please contact Steven Kellner our Director of Program Sustainability & Growth at skellner@caedpartners.org.
